An American Family History

Sinking Creek Settlement

East Tennessee is part of Appalachia. At the end of the French and Indian War, colonists began drifting into the area. In 1769, they first settled along the Watauga River. During the Revolution, the Overmountain Men defeated British loyalists at the Battle of Kings Mountain. The State of Franklin was formed in the 1780s, but never admitted to the Union.

Carter County, Tennessee was organized from Washington County on April 9, 1796. Elizabethton is the county seat.

Sinking Creek is a tributary of the Watauga River. The Sinking Creek Baptist Church was organized in 1772. The creek is in Johnson City, Tennessee.

December 31, 1774, John Carmack had 470 acres survyed on Sinking Creek and
on January 31, 1775, he had an additional 97 acres surveyed.

The Virginia Gazette
(Williamsburg, Virginia)
25 Aug 1774

The Denton family came to the area about 1775. On November 19, 1775 James Denton was granted patent #63 on Brush Creek and Sinking Creek in the Watauga Purchases and Samuel Denton was granted patent #74 on Brush Creek.

In 1776, the church was disbanded because problems with the indigenous people. In 1777-1778 it was reorganized by Talbot, Mulkey, and Joshua Kelly.

In 1782 the Philip Ausmus family settled along the middle fork of Sinking Creek, one mile
southwest of present day Johnson City near the home of John Sevier. Randolph Crecelias (b. 1728) came at the same time and settled adjacent to Philip Ausmus' land along Little Cherokee
and Sinking Creeks.

John Hammer came to Washington County in the early 1780's along with his brother, Baltis, the Bogart family and the Range family. They settled on Knob Creek and were early members of Sinking Creek Baptist Church.